Damsel With A Dulcimer
by Easterly Winds
Summary: A collection of miscellaneous Wicked drabbles. Book, musical, booksical. A little of everything!
1. Beginnings

Galinda could hardly stand still in the line. She was new! She was fresh! She was edgy! A boy stepped forward and smiled at her. She grinned back excitedly before realizing her proper manners and nodding to him silently. He walked up to her with the grace of someone brought up on fine saffron cream. Galinda recognized him instantly.

"Ah, Master Avaric Margreave." Galinda curtsied slightly, showing that she understood the sway he held in her home country of Gillikin. Master Avaric nodded back to her, extending his arm and guiding her around the ballroom, showing her the recognizable columns and mouldings. She was beginning to see the attraction of architecture.


	2. Boq's Thoughts

When Boq saw the very long line for the knife to sharpen pencils, he realized he should have sharpened his pencil at home before coming to school. When Boq saw that his fountain pen wrote in red ink instead of the requested blue, he realized he should have checked the ink before he began writing. When Boq saw the famous, beautiful, completely green Thropp Third Descending walk into the classroom, he realized he should have tested the waters before jumping in.


	3. Eat Cake

This was a strange something I cooked up after watching Marie Antoinette with Kirsten Dunst. It's supposed to be Gelphie...Glinda and Elphaba are queens of Oz.

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Glinda was eating a small slice of cake when the page walked into her room. Elphaba was asleep in the bed, probably faking, but enjoying the softness of the pillows and the lack of need to awake properly and embrace the day. The page was slightly out of breath, as though he had just run down the hall and composed himself before entering.

"Queen Glinda." The page bowed and Glinda nodded her head in his general direction. "We have urgent news from the people of the Emerald City. They are cursing your name and Queen Elphaba's." Glinda frowned.

"Why is this? What cause could they possibly have to be so rude?" Glinda's temper, Gillikinese and short, just like her, was flaring up.

"They are starving in the streets. They have so little money, they can barely eat. They cannot even afford bread." The page waited for the explosion.

"If they cannot afford bread," Glinda shouted, tossing a piece of frosting-covered loaf against the wall and watching it drip down almost sickeningly, "let them eat cake!" And suddenly Glinda was hurling cake at the page, missing and hitting indiscriminately, wasting pounds of bread and sugar. The page squeaked and dashed out of the room, slamming the door which Glinda continued to pelt with her full fury converted into icing roses.


	4. Candle In The Wind

Sung to the tune of Candle In The Wind by Elton John

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Goodbye Elphaba

Though I hardly knew you at all

You had the grace to hold yourself

While those around you crawled

You crawled out of the woodwork

And they whispered into our brains

They set me on the treadmill

And in the end I changed my name

And it seems to me you lived your life

Like a candle in the wind

Never knowing where to run to

When the rain set in

And I would have liked to have loved you

Then I was just a kid

Your candle melted long before

Your legend ever did

Loneliness was hard

The hardest book you ever read

The Wizard created a villain

And you had to end up dead

Even when you died

Ozians still hounded you

All the papers had to say

Was that the Wicked Witch was through

And it seems to me you lived your life

Like a candle in the wind

Never knowing where to run to

When the rain set in

And I would have liked to have loved you

Then I was just a kid

Your candle melted long before

Your legend ever did

Goodbye Elphaba

Though I hardly knew you at all

You had the grace to hold yourself

While those around you crawled

Goodbye Elphaba

From the young girl in the 22nd room

Who sees you as something as more than wicked

More than a witch upon her broom

And it seems to me you lived your life

Like a candle in the wind

Never knowing where to run to

When the rain set in

And I would have liked to have loved you

Then I was just a kid

Your candle melted long before

Your legend ever did


	5. Ends

"Oh!" Galinda pouted, dragging her fingers through her curls. "My hair!" Elphaba rolled her eyes.

"What could _possibly _be wrong with your perfect blonde curly perfect hair, Miss Galinda?" Elphaba almost spat at Galinda with every angry syllable.

"Split _ends_!!!" Galinda's voice dragged out the "e" and she let her head flop back ungracefully. She immediately popped her head back up, though, and began pulling the small split ends apart, trying to hide the unfortunate hair-plague.

Elphaba stared almost incredulously as she witnessed Galinda happily picking apart the tips of her hair. Unwilling to spark another debate with Galinda, she muttered to herself, _"That's not the only thing that's split."_


	6. Family

Elphaba shrieked. Nessa began to cry and wave her chubby legs. Nanny, taking a mid-afternoon nap, snored obliviously. Frex rushed outside and cradled Nessa in his arms. He checked her over and, finding nothing out of the ordinary, looked to his eldest daughter. She was rocking on the ground, clutching her bleeding ankle and biting back tears. His question was unfair and biased. It made anger rise in the back of Elphaba's throat. "What did you do to Nessa?"


	7. Frex Drabble

It was never a question if Elphaba would take the place of her great-grandfather. She was simply too antisocial. Or at least, that's how Frex justified it to himself. Really, and most people knew or assumed, it was her color. It was only just that Frex though it unfair that he should be so godly and Melena so important and they weren't graced with three normal children. Surely he deserved an undamaged girl. He was so preoccupied with his misfortune that he somehow managed to miss raising all three of his children properly.


	8. Insides

"What color are your insides, Elphaba?" Boq was twirling a strand of Elphaba's long black hair into a loose braid as she sat with her head in his lap. She paused for a moment, thinking seriously, then shouted with laughter, surprising the short boy.

"Did we not already have this conversation, Boq?" Elphaba referred to the time he had tried to spy on Miss Galinda by climbing the peach trees and landing in the cabagges.

"I assume my insides are green as all hell, just as I am." Elphaba spoke after a long silence in which Boq tried to braid individual strands of Elphaba's hair. He blinked, not expecting her to actually consider the question.

Elphaba sat up and turned her head around, looking at Boq as though expecting him to come up with a reply that would ruin the conversation's suddenly attained degree of seriousness.

"Hell is green?"


	9. Lurlinemas

Elphaba opened the door to Life Sciences, ready to scowl through the day. With an almighty crash, a bucket of gold paint splashed against her body and frock, seeping past her lips and into her eyes. She shrieked and shook the offending dye out of her eyes, spitting gold saliva onto the classroom floor.

"It's a Lurlinemas ornament!" A boy shouted. Several students began singing Lurlinemas hymns and swaying side to side. Doctor Nikidik entered the classroom, shocked at the appearance of a giant Lurlinemas ornament in his classroom.

"It's nowhere _near_ Summersend, students, what is the meaning of this?" Elphaba spat a final time, a few drops of paint making their way onto Doctor Nikidik's jacket, and stormed out of the room. She flung herself into her own room and fell onto the bed, containing furious sobs.

"That's it!" She spoke to herself, still wiping off sheets of gold paint. "From now on, I officially _hate_ Lurlinemas."


	10. Middles

The Emerald City was the very center of Oz, literally as well as figuratively. The happy green heart of the country of Oz beat in the center of the map. Curling letters proclaimed, "Emerald City!" on every drawing. It was exciting for a young college girl. Or two, if that was the case. But for a jaded woman, old enough now to see through the nasty green cement and the tattered emerald thread holding the City together, all that had been left of the magic and wonder was now a dirty brown stain in the center of an old abandoned corn exchange. A streak of scarlet on a mute animal. A nightmare involving horrific reds, greens, and golds. What had been the middle of this woman's life was soon to be the end.


	11. Moons

The rain beat down on the tin roof over Elphaba's head. She cowered under a blanket, shivering and wishing for her Glinda to come warm her up with a pretty story and a goodnight kiss. A few lucky stars twinkled merrily through her heavy glass window, the obtuse moon giggling at the lump under the covers.

The rain pattered softly against the window of Nessa's room. She shook her head every few seconds, dislodging the tears that she had no means to wipe away. Her heart ached for her recently departed sister, and then a fire grew behind her eyes and thrust out all ideas of Elphaba. The melancholy moon moaned an unhappy song against her window.

The rain swished in thick rivulets across Glinda's feet as she stood poised at the top of the bridge over Suicide Canal. Bitter laughter echoed in her mind, mingled with the whispers, "My sweet," and "Hold out." Tears blurred her vision as she climbed over the railing. The psychotic moon urged her forward, pressing gently on her back and tipping her body into the canal.


	12. The First

Perhaps all this trouble had started when Galinda brought home her first date. When the servant girl Anka had walked in on the pair of them making love in Galinda's room. Or maybe it had been Galinda's second date. They had been more adventurous, choosing not Galinda's room but the library to carry on their little affair. This time it had been Galinda's own father who had not knocked and caught a glimpse of his daughter and her partner blushing furiously and scrambling to hide themselves with pillows. And there were further possibilities yet! The third had been a repeat of number two, hidden away in Galinda's ample closet space. Four was met at a local dance club in Frottica. Needless to say, Galinda was never allowed in that dance club again. Five and Galinda were in a boutique just off the main road leading to Pertha Hills. In a dressing room for twenty minutes, Galinda and Five made hasty love to each other. But of all the dates, perhaps it must be One who started it. _Yes_, though Mrs. Upland, _it all started when Galinda brought home the governor's daughter._


	13. Silence Is Golden

There was a large poster in the library. It was tacky and would probably be better suited to a children's library. It was off-putting, really. Ugly, bright, with a dumb slogan splashed across strange slick paper. It was her excuse to avoid the library. And then she was dragged there by her own need to pass her classes and she discovered that someone had taken it down. She found she missed it in an odd way. It had become a principle in the library. Silence was no longer golden.


	14. The Stranger

_"Well, we all have a face that we hide away forever_

_And we take them out and show ourselves when everyone has gone._

_Some are satin, some are steel,_

_Some are silk and some are leather._

_They're the faces of a stranger,_

_But we love to try them on."_

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Elphaba's Stranger was silk. Glinda had seen it once or twice. When Elphaba was deep in sleep, when Glinda was teasing a lock of hair from Elphaba's braid, when Elphaba was stealing a kiss from Glinda's rosy lips. Elphaba was harsh and jagged where the Stranger was soft and smooth. Glinda loved them both.

--------

Glinda's Stranger was steel. Elphaba had only seen it once. It had been when Elphaba was studying hard. Glinda had grabbed Elphaba's book from under her nose, a library book, and ripped out every single page in a fit of rage. The Stranger had that famed Gillikinese temper while Glinda seemed very patient about most things. Elphaba could never leave either of them.


	15. Work

A/N: Lackaday, it has been a short amount of time since my latest batch o' drabbles, so here are a few more and I'll get right to work on some more.

Boq hated cleaning those damn manuscripts. Sure, Crope and Tibbett were entertaining on occasion, but one could only stand so many hours of yodeling before it became trying. All he could think about, besides the beautiful Miss Galinda, was how he needed to make his father proud. As he sliced his palm open with the surprisingly sharp cleaning bristles, startling Crope and Tibbett out of their heated yodeling competition, and bled all over his latest freshly cleaned manuscript, a word came to mind rather clearly. _Shit_.


	16. Youth

I see you. I see you, beautiful sad girl. I see you sit in front of a mirror for hours each day, pretending that your perfect hair grows in perfect ringlets. I see the sadness in your eyes each time you think on the lie you live. It was never your lot to be seen as intelligent. You, with your breathtaking beauty and your fantastic skin and your shiny blonde ringlets, the ones that are supposed to grow naturally, you were meant to be an image. A portrait of Youth, never a studious young woman. Youth, how delicate. Youth, how splendid. Youth, how indescribably unhappy with her own impeccable life. Sometimes I can hear you cry. You never cry on the outside, but deep in a scrap of your flawless soul, you scream. Your throat is hoarse from the giggling and childish gossip. Your mind is dusty from eighteen years of neglect. You pick up a book and immediately throw it back down. And when you sit in front of your mirror, when you are so absorbed in your own face that you cannot see me behind you, I see you die.


End file.
